CHAPTER 41
1 After two years Pharaoh saw a dream; he guessed that he stood on a river,
2 from which seven fair kine and full fat went up, and [they] were fed in the places of marshes;
3 and another seven, foul and lean, came out of the river, and were fed in that brink of the water, in green places;
4 and those foul and lean kine devoured those kine of which the fairness and comeliness of their bodies were wonderful. Pharaoh waked,
5 and slept again, and he saw another dream; seven ears of corn, full and fair, came forth in one stalk,
6 and others, as many ears of corn, thin and smitten with corruption of burning wind, came forth,
7 devouring all the fairness of the first. Pharaoh waked after this rest,
8 and when the morrowtide was made, he was afeared by inward dread, and he sent to all the expounders of Egypt, and to all the wise men; and when they were called, he told the dream, and none was that expounded it.
9 Then at the last, the master butler bethought to him, and said to Pharaoh, I acknowledge my sin;
10 the king was wroth to his servants, and commanded me and the master baker to be cast down into the prison of the prince of knights,
11 where we both saw a dream in one night, before-showing of things to come.
12 An Hebrew child, servant of the same duke of knights, was there, to whom we told the dreams, and heard whatever thing the befalling of [the] thing proved afterward;
13 for I am restored to mine office, and he was hanged in a cross.
14 Anon at the behest of the king, they polled Joseph, led him out of the prison, and when his clothing was changed, they brought him to the king.
15 To whom the king said, I saw dreams, and none [there] is that expoundeth those things that I saw; I have heard that thou expoundest such things most prudently.
16 Joseph answered, Without me, God shall answer prosperities to Pharaoh.
17 Therefore Pharaoh told that that he saw; I guessed that I stood on the brink of the flood,
18 and seven kine, full fair, with flesh able to eating, went up from the water, which kine gathered green sedges in the pasture of the marshes;
19 and lo! seven other kine, so foul and lean, followed these, that I saw never such in the land of Egypt;
20 and when the former kine were devoured and wasted of the lean kine,
21 the lean kine gave no step, or token, of fullness, but were slow, or feeble, by like leanness and paleness. I waked,
22 and again I was oppressed by sleep, and I saw a dream; seven ears of corn, full and most fair, came forth on one stalk,
23 and another seven, thin and smitten with [a] burning wind, came forth of the stubble,
24 which devoured the fairness of the former; I told this dream to [the] expounders, and no man there is that expoundeth it.
25 Joseph answered, The dream of the king is one; God hath showed to Pharaoh what things he shall do.
26 Seven fair kine, and seven full ears of corn, be seven years of plenty, and the same things comprehend the strength of the dream;
27 and [the] seven kine, thin and lean, that went up after the fair kine, and the seven thin ears of corn, and smitten with [a] burning wind, be seven years of hunger to coming [or to come],
28 which shall be fulfilled by this order.
29 Lo! seven years of great plenty in all the land of Egypt shall come,
30 and seven other years of so great barrenness shall pursue [or follow] those, that all the abundance before shall be given to forgetting; for hunger shall waste all the land,
31 and the greatness of neediness shall waste the greatness of plenty.
32 Forsooth this that thou sawest the second time in a dream pertaining to the same thing, is a showing of firm-ness, that is, a confirming of the first, for the word of God shall be done, and it shall be [ful] filled full swiftly.
33 Now therefore purvey the king a wise man and a ready, and make the king him sovereign to the land of Egypt,
34 which man ordain governors by all countries, and gather he into barns the fifth part of fruits by [the] seven years of plenty, that shall come now;
35 and all the wheat be kept under the power of Pharaoh, and be it kept in [the] cities,
36 and be it made ready to the hunger to coming [or to come] of the seven years that shall oppress Egypt, and the land be not wasted by poverty.
37 The counsel of Joseph pleased Pharaoh, and all his servants,
38 and he spake to them, Whether we be able to find such a man which is full of God’s spirit?
39 Therefore Pharaoh said to Joseph, For God hath showed to thee all things which thou hast spoken, whether I may find a wiser man than thou, and like to thee?
40 Therefore thou shalt be over mine house, and all the people shall obey to the behest of thy mouth; I shall pass thee only by one throne of the realm.
41 And again Pharaoh said to Joseph, Lo! I have ordained thee on all the land of Egypt.
42 And Pharaoh took off the ring from his hand, and gave it in the hand of Joseph, and he clothed Joseph with a stole of bis, or of white silk, and he put a golden wreath about his neck;
43 and Pharaoh made Joseph to go upon his second chariot, while a beadle cried, that all men should kneel before him, and should know that he was sovereign of all the land of Egypt.
44 And the king said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, without thy behest no man shall stir hand either foot in all the land of Egypt.
45 And Pharaoh turned the name of Joseph, and called him by the Egyptian language, The Saviour of the World, or Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave to Joseph a wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of Heliopolis, that is, The City of the Sun. And so Joseph went out to the land of Egypt.
46 Forsooth Joseph was of thirty years, when he stood in the sight of king Pharaoh, and compassed all the countries [or regions] of Egypt.
47 And the plenty of [the] seven years came, and [the] ripe corns were bound into handfuls or sheaves,
48 and they were gathered into the barns of Egypt, also all the abundance of ripe corns was kept in all cities,
49 and so great abundance was of wheat, that it was made even to the gravel, or the sand, of the sea, and the plenty passed measure.
50 Soothly two sons were born to Joseph before that the hunger came, which Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of Heliopolis, childed to him.
51 And Joseph called the name of the first begotten son, Manasseh, and said, God hath made me to forget all my travails, and the house of my father;
52 and he called the name of the second son Ephraim, and said, God hath made me to increase in the land of my poverty.
53 Therefore when seven years of plenty that were in Egypt were passed,
54 [the] seven years of poverty began to come, which Joseph before-said, and hunger had the mastery in all the world; also hunger was in all the land of Egypt;
55 and when that land hungered, the people cried to Pharaoh, and asked for meats; to whom he answered, Go ye to Joseph, and do ye whatever thing he saith to you.
56 Forsooth hunger increased each day in all the land, and Joseph opened all the barns, and sold corn to the Egyptians, for also hunger oppressed them;
57 and all [the] provinces came into Egypt to buy corns, and to abate the evil of neediness.